Project complexity / difficulty / challenge and teaching

Harvey MaylorCranfield School of Management United Kingdom

Agenda

• Personal and organisational responses to managerial complexity / difficulty / challenge

• Research: what makes a project complex / difficult / challenging to manage?

• How useful is the PMI BoK in managing under complexity / difficulty / challenge?

• Teaching: matching syllabi with organisational and personal maturity

Managerial Complexity / Difficulty

/ Challenge

Organisational Response

•Systems

•Structures

•Managerial effort required

?

Research framework

Methodology

• Exploratory

• Based on revised version of PZB

• Initial workshops – 3 firms, yielded 71 concepts

• Main workshop, 107 PMs – yielded over 1000 individual responses, confirmed 71 initial concepts and took the total to 160

• Concepts clustered – best fit, active experimentation

Stakeholder attributes

Managerial cdc

Inter-stakeholder relationships

Stakeholder dynamics

Time and space

Organization

Organizational form

Organizational dynamics

Project team

Task

Project organization

Project resources

Task attributes

Task dynamics

External Stakeholders

Structural Dynamic

Stakeholder attributes

External Stakeholders

PowerDoes the stakeholder group:• Have the power to make

decisions (e.g., to impose SOP)?

• Have authority?• Have accountability?

ExperienceDoes the stakeholder group:• Understand the

implications of the project?• Have realistic expectations

of the project? **• Have experience of the

domain? *• Have experience of project

management? *

Socio-political• Have the stakeholder groups

worked together before? *• Are there hidden

agendas/unsurfaced assumptions? ***

• Is there conflict between stakeholders?

• Are there power struggles between stakeholders?

• Do the requirements of the different stakeholders conflict? ***

• Are there competing priorities of stakeholders? ***

• Is there a shared understanding by the stakeholders about the aims of the project?

Inter-stakeholder relationships

Support for projectDo the stakeholder groups:• Have buy-in to the project?• Have commitment to the

project?• Interfere with the project? *• Have sufficient availability

of time for the project?• Resist the project? *• Take ownership of the

project?• Respond to project needs

in a timely manner, e.g., decision-making? *

Inter-dependencies• Are there inter-dependencies

between stakeholders (e.g., between suppliers) **

Stakeholder identification• How many stakeholders

are there? ***• Are there unidentified

stakeholders? *

Key stakeholders• Are unions involved?• Is there senior

management support? **• Is there a clear sponsor?

Relationship basis• Is the relationship basis of

project with stakeholders contractual?

Time and space

Organization

Structural compatibility• Is there a mismatch

between matrix structure of project and department structure of organization?

• Is delivery to a non-project based organization?

Organizational form

Time• Are there multiple time-

zones? ***

Space• Are project team members

co-located? ***• Is there face-to-face

communication between project team members? **

Geography• Are there multiple

currencies?• Are there multiple

languages? **

Task attributes

Objectives• Is there a clear vision for the

project? ***• Are the business case, goals,

success criteria clear? ***• Are project goals aligned with

the organization’s strategy?• Are there measures for the

success criteria?• Are the requirements clear?• Is the scope of the project

clearly defined?

Risk and uncertainty• Is the timescale realistic? *• Are the implications and side

effects understood?• Are there a large number of

unknowns? *• Have the assumptions been

tested?• Is there a large solution space? *• Are there many ways of

achieving the solution?• Is there a high degree of

urgency?• Is the budget defined?• Are there significant intangible

benefits?• Are there interdependencies

between projects? ***• Are there competing priorities

between projects? ***• Are there many

interdependencies within project?• Are there multiple technology

interfaces (hardware, software)?• Is the product aimed at a new

market?• Is product highly customized? *• Does the project involve new

technology? ***• Has the project been done before

(degree of novelty)? ***

Constraints• Confidentiality (e.g., IP)?• Security? *• Health and Safety? *• Legislative, compliance? *

Scale• Large no. of deliverables?• Long time-scale? **• Large no. of resources? **• High value (budget)? *• High profile (e.g., strategic,

controversial)?• Broad scope (e.g., product for

a global marketplace)?

Project organization

Administration• Project data collection - is

the data:•Accurate?•True?•Complete?

• Project reporting:•Is the true progress/status of the project known?•Is there information overload?•Is status communicated effectively up, down, and sideways?

• Is the procurement process effective? Are project inputs acquired in a timely manner?

Decision-making• Is there effective

governance for project decision-making? *

• How many levels of management are involved in project decision-making?

Project processes• Are project processes

defined and standardized but not over-bureaucratic?

• Is there clear responsibility for tasks and deliverables?

• Are the work packages well defined?

Task

Project management methodology (PMM)

• What is the maturity level of the project organization?

• How well do the project team understand the PMM?

• Is there a common PMM used throughout the project? *

• Is the PMM used for real (e.g., not subject to arbitrary override by senior management on cost/urgency grounds)

• Is the PMM appropriate to the project (e.g., is there blanket use of Prince 2 for all projects)?

Project team

Project manager• Does the project manager

display leadership?• Does the project manager

have authority? *• Is the project manager an

effective communicator? **

Task

Inter-Personal• Are there cultural

differences between team members? ***

• Have the team members worked together before?

• Do the team members trust each other?

• Are there personality clashes/rivalry? **

• Do the project team have a shared vision for the project? **

Project staff• Are the team members

motivated? *• Do the team members have

a good attitude?• Are the team members

committed to the project?• What is the level of

sickness/absence?• Are the team members

knowledgeable and competent: *

•Technical?•Business?•Project management?

• Do the team members have sufficient prior experience: ***

•Technical?•Business?•Project management?

• Does the project involve multiple technical disciplines and languages? ***

• Has sufficient training been conducted?

Resources - human• Resource availability:

•Are human resources shared across projects? *

•Do human resources have sufficient %FTE allocated to the project?

•To what extent is there reliance on key experts?

•What is the availability of key experts? *

• Who controls human resources for the project? ***

• Does the project manager have control over resource selection?

Resources - technology• Does the project have tool

support?• Are the tools new?• Are the tools

home-grown/unsupported?

Project resources

• Are the stakeholders changing/emerging?

• Is the project sponsor changing?

Stakeholder dynamics

• Is there on-going organizational restructuring that impacts the project?

• Does the project involve organizational restructuring (e.g., BPR)? *

• Is the culture of the organization shifting?

• Is the business environment of the organization changing?

Organizational dynamics

Requirements• How frequently do the

requirements change? *• How significant are the

changes to requirements? *• Is the scope of the project

‘creeping’? *

Task dynamics

Dynamics

Change management• Is the change management

process sufficiently flexible?• Is the change management

process cost effective?

Resources - financial• How flexible are project

budgets/financial resources?

Timescale• Is the project timescale

changing?

Stakeholder attributes

Managerial cdc

Inter-stakeholder relationships

Stakeholder dynamics

Time and space

Organization

Organizational form

Organizational dynamics

Project team

Task

Project organization

Project resources

Task attributes

Task dynamics

External Stakeholders

Structural Dynamic

Comparison with PMIBoK

Expectation: Tasks associated with managing projects greatly assisted by knowledge codified in the BoK.

Test: How well do the 9 knowledge areas cover managing the 11 categories of issues that make projects complex to manage?

Key: - Significant coverage

- Some coverage

- Mentioned

Intreg. Mgt Scope Mgt Time Mgt Cost Mgt Quality Mgt HRM Comms Mgt Risk Mgt Proc. Mgt

S’holder

Inter-s’holder

S’holderDyn.

Geog.

Org. Struc.

Org. Change

Proj Team

Task atributes

Res.

Proj org

Task Dyn

Describing the context of the project:What makes a project complex to manage?

Structural Dynamic

Task

External Stakeholders

Organisation

Overall

Speculative classification of managerial task

Structural Level

Dynamic Level

High

High

Low

Low

Easy-life

ComplexMajor

Agile?

Research agenda

• General

• What are the key drivers of cdc?

• Can complexity be quantified?

• What is the nature of the interaction effects between elements of complexity?

• Can complexity be managed?

• How should organisational responses to complexity be managed?

• Teaching

• Should complexity be reflected in:• Content of teaching programmes• BoKs

Harvey MaylorCranfield School of Management

United Kingdomharvey.maylor@cranfield.ac.uk

Project complexity / difficulty / challenge and teaching